THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT

By Jemima Rayan

The Sword is the one weapon that is quite different from the rest of the weapons. The sword is more an offensive weapon than a purely defensive one. To fight the devil in your life, there are no short cuts. In fact, there is no other effective way than to take the sword of the spirit in your mouth. In order for you to get there, you need to spend a lot of time meditating the word of God and memorizing portions of it. That is the way you have an abundance of Word when you need it. You cannot tell the devil, “Hey devil, hold on, let me find out which word will stop you”. No! You have lost the battle already if you do that. You need to get trained to use this weapon so effectively that the devil will not mess with you anymore. It is the only way to drive the devil off.

Are you finding it so hard to fight with the enemy? It is not as hard. The only thing that you need to be aware of is your position in Christ and the privileges you have in the Lord. The devil is already defeated. He cannot stop you from doing God’s will in your life. But you can stop him. Jesus has given you the power to trample over serpents and scorpions and nothing can by any means hurt you (Luke 10:19)

The source and the nature of the Sword of the Spirit:

1. It penetrates:

Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is living and active sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart”.

God’ word is so powerful to penetrate to every area of a human being. It divides the soul and the spirit, the innermost area of human personality. It goes to areas where no missile on earth can reach. It does much more than any human inventions can do.

2. Comes out of the mouth of Jesus:

John the disciple saw a vision in Revelations 1:16 when he had a vision of Jesus in His glory as the Lord of the church, one of the things that he saw was a sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus. “In his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword”.

3. The only weapon Jesus used:

Matthew 4:1-11 says that Jesus used this weapon all the three times the devil talked to Him in the wilderness. Every time Jesus encountered Satan personally, the only weapon He used against him was the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

Jesus had no doubts about the scripture. He knew it so well that if he uses the scriptures, there will be divine manifestations. Satan also never questioned the authority of the Scripture. He never will. The devil knows the power of the Word of God. The temptation that Satan threw at Jesus was for Him to doubt the Word of God. Notice Satan starts each question with an “if”. That means he calls for doubt.

Beloved, this is the same strategy the devil uses against us. He will cause us to doubt the Word of God as he did to Eve in the Garden of Eden. Once he gets there, then it is easy for him to work on us. That is why we need to hold on to the Word like an anchor even when the going gets tough. No matter what your situations are, the Word of God is the same. God’s word is perfect, powerful and reliable in every situation.

Also notice, Jesus did not have different methods to deal with the enemy. He used the same weapon of the Word of God against him. “It is written…it is written…it is written…”

4. Sword of the Spirit is the “Rhema word”:

Ephesians 6:17 says, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Paul speaks about the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. In the Greek it is ‘Rhema’ which is the spoken word. It is not the Bible that is in your bookshelf or on the nightstand or on your coffee table. It is the word of God you have put in your heart and the Holy Spirit taking the one word and giving it to you in your time of need.

Our part is to deposit the word of God in our hearts. The Holy Spirit will not do that for us. But when we take the sword in faith, then the Holy Spirit gives us the power and the wisdom to use it.

May the Lord help us use the sword of the Spirit effectively in our lives. Amen.